Jupiter, as seen by Nasa’s Juno spacecraft of Jupiter. The picture is made from some of the first images taken by JunoCam after the spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter.
Composite: SwRI/MSSS/REX/Shutterstock

A rather fuzzy scene, the picture shows Jupiter part-illuminated by the sun, its giant red spot clearly visible. Also visible, as bright dots in the scene, are three of its four Galilean moons, Io, Europa and Ganymede.

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The photograph was taken by the spacecraft’s JunoCam on the 10th July, when it the basketball court-sized probe was 4.3 million kilometers from the gas giant. With Juno on a 53 day orbit, the distance between it and Jupiter is currently increasing with the spacecraft’s next closest approach to the planet expected at the end of August.

That, the researchers say, will allow the JunoCam to snap the first high-resolution images of the planet.

“This scene from JunoCam indicates it survived its first pass through Jupiter’s extreme radiation environment without any degradation and is ready to take on Jupiter,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “We can’t wait to see the first view of Jupiter’s poles.”

The Juno spacecraft was launched in August 2011, and reached Jupiter last week after 1.8 billion mile journey. Once it has completed two 53-day orbits, in October Juno will be re-positioned into a 14 day orbit, allowing the spacecraft’s scientific instruments to collect a wealth of data about the planet. The mission will offer scientists a chance to peek beneath the Jupiter’s clouds and, it is hoped, unpick a host of puzzles, from the nature of Jupiter’s core to the makeup of its atmosphere.

Juno will spend around 20 months studying the gas giant after which Juno will end its mission by crashing into Jupiter.